Pigeon Rescue

Two weeks ago, I was walking to the allotment before work, I spotted a trail of feathers across the road. Ominous, I thought and searched for a body on the other side of the road. To my surprise, I found a wood pigeon, battered and clearly injured, alive on the pavement.

I quickly ran to the allotment and sorted out the chickens whilst trying to plan how I would get the pigeon to a vet whilst also needing to leave for work in the next 20 minutes. I grabbed an old towel and headed across the road to catch the bird. As I walked slowly towards it, it clocked me and eyed the outstretched towel suspiciously. It waited until I was almost able to reach it before it made its move. Half flapping, it launched itself away from me and managed to drag itself under a car on someone’s driveway. I dropped to the ground to see if I could still reach it but it sat smugly under the middle of the car, completely inaccessible. There was no way I could reach it and it was far too early in the morning to knock on the door and ask them to move their car. Frustrated, I had to leave it there, worried that it might get run over or further injured by an opportunistic cat.

On Thursday lunchtime, I headed back to the plot with my husband. We fed the chickens and on the way back, we walked slowly past the house where I had seen the pigeon the day before. To my surprise, the pigeon was still there – sitting just to one side of the driveway. How or had managed to survive so long without food or water and carrying a significant injury was beyond me. I ran back to the allotment, collected a strip of pond liner blanket and rushed back to try and pick it up.

I told my husband to guard the end of the driveway and to try and keep it away from the car. Again, I tried catching it and initially, it evaded my efforts. One wrong flutter saw.it cornered between the fence and the front step. I quickly wrapped it in the pond liner (it was not impressed with this!) and we marched home.

Once we were back at home, I quickly transferred it into the pet carrier and put in a bowl of water. It showed zero interest in the water despite not having access to water for at least 30 hours. Worried, I rang the local Wildlife Centre and was told I could bring the bird in. Yelling to my long-suffering husband to get the car keys, we piled into the car and headed out. When we arrived, the bird was checked over by a veterinary nurse who identified a broken wing and that the pigeon was underweight and dehydrated. They immediately called for the vet and reassured me that whatever the injury, the bird would be cared for even if that meant they had to put it down. Relieved the pigeon was in good hands, we went home. My husband was most relieved of all as he was worried we would be adding another bird to our menagerie…